Gambling
Is there a difference between land-based casinos, online casinos or a slot machine at the pub?
I have always enjoyed gambling. Gambling isn't about winning money for me, I just enjoy taking the risk. I never play for more than I can afford and I never expect to win anything, when I put some money in the slot machine or on the online casino I see them as lost.
Earlier tonight I was thinking though, how big is the difference between these three types of gambling?
Yes, I do think there is a big difference but I don't have any numbers.
Land-based Casinos
These casinos are mainly focused on high-rollers, VIP-guests and people who's going out for the night but wants to have some fun at the black jack table or the roulette table.
I've found that the house edge is smaller at land-based casinos (at least when it comes to slot matchines), maybe I'm wrong but it wouldn't surprise me either.
All casinos in Sweden are run by the same company, you need to be twenty years old to get into a casino in Sweden.
You attend a land-based casino to get a drink, relax with your friends and just to have fun.
Slot machines or Black Jack table at the pub
In Sweden all slot machines are connected to the same company that runs all the casinos (Svenska Spel, in English: Swedish Games), you need to be eighteen years old and you have to be registered at Svenska Spel to play on the slot machines.
The slot machines is made so that you usually only put in up to $10 in it each time (when you reach $50 it prints out a receipt, then you can keep playing) and the maximum bet is $0,6.
I personally feel like the house edge is higher on these slot machines than at the casino, one reason is because the maximum bet is so low and the second reason is because the restaurant needs a cut of the house profit.
Black Jack rules at the pub might differ from the ones at the casino, which gives the house a slightly higher edge.
Online Casinos
Online casinos are run as business, they want to profit from small, medium and high-rollers. It's self-explainable why the house edge is very high at these casinos. Otherwise they would never survive since there are so, so many online casinos. The competition between online casinos are a lot higher than the competition between land-based casinos, especially in Sweden where the same company runs all land-based casinos.
We could start to discuss the bonus system that online casino runs, you get up to maybe 100% bonus but you need to play 50 times for than you would otherwise, increasing the house edge even more.